iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MORRIS COUNTY, N.J) -- A U.S. Army major and his wife are facing federal child-abuse charges for cruelty to their six children, three of whom were adopted. The alleged acts of cruelty include breaking their bones, denying them medical attention, withholding water and force-feeding them hot sauce, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said Wednesday.

John E. Jackson, 37, and Carolyn Jackson, 35, worked at the Picatinny Arsenal Installation in Morris County, N.J. Because the alleged crimes occurred on a military base, they will be tried in a federal court.

The Jacksons are charged in a 17-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to endanger the welfare of a child, 13 counts of endangering the welfare of a child and three counts of assault.

“Carolyn and John Jackson are charged with unimaginable cruelty to children they were trusted to protect,” Fishman said in a statement. “The crimes alleged should not happen to any child, anywhere, and it is deeply disturbing that they would happen on a military installation. Along with the FBI, we will continue to seek justice for our communities’ most vulnerable victims.”

The Picatinny Arsenal Installation did not return a request for comment.

The alleged abuse occurred from 2005 until 2010, when the Jacksons engaged in a “constant course” of neglect and cruelty to their three adopted children and told their three biological children not to report the physical assaults, saying the punishments were “training” the adopted children how to behave, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that the Jacksons withheld water from their children and assaulted them with objects, causing fractured bones. The report also says the parents caused the children to consume food meant for suffering, including red pepper flakes, hot sauce and raw onion. They also allegedly caused one child to ingest excessive sodium or sodium-laden substances while being deprived of water, leading to a life-threatening condition.

The defense teams for the parents did not return a request for comment.

The children are in the custody of the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

Several support websites and online groups for Carolyn and John Jackson have been developed since the abuse allegations first became known in 2010.

One website, ReuniteJackson7, maintains the Jacksons are innocent and asks for donations for legal fees. New Jersey attorney Grace Meyer’s address is listed on the website as the place to send in donations. When ABC News contacted Meyer, she said she doesn’t know who is behind the website. She added that she had not received any donations and was unaware that her name was on the website.

Meyer said she represented the family from 2010 through last year.

“I represented them for two years in court. I believe God is in control of this and I just know they’ll be exonerated,” Meyer said.

If the Jacksons are convicted, each faces a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison on each of the 17 counts. Each count also carries a maximum $250,000 fine.

Both are scheduled to appear in a U.S. District Court Thursday at 11 a.m. before Judge Mark Falk.

WPVI/ABC News(PHILADELPHIA) -- The Philadelphia cop caught on video punching a woman in the face will be fired, according to ABC News' Philadelphia station, WPVI.

A video posted on YouTube shows Lt. Jonathan Josey punching a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground before she is led off bloodied and handcuffed.

Earlier Wednesday, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said it intends to drop the disorderly conduct charge against the woman who was hit.

The woman was identified as Aida Gusman, 39, a mother of three and domestic worker, according to WPVI. She denied throwing anything at police and said she did not know why she was punched.

"I'm 40 years old. I don't have time to play games like that," Gusman told WPVI earlier in the week. In addition to her facial injury, she has cuts and bruises on her arm and hand.

The video was taken at Sunday's Puerto Rican Day Parade.

The video shows a crowd of blue-shirted police officers standing in the middle of a street, around a car. Someone on the left appears to throw something resembling silly string or a liquid on the cops. An officer in a white shirt rushes out of the crowd and goes after a woman with long, dark hair and a black T-shirt.

Her back is to the camera so it is unclear if she was saying anything to him. The officer appears to punch her in the face and then hit her in the back of the head. She falls to the ground where two officers apprehend her and lead her off. As she passes the camera, blood can be seen streaming down her face.

A fellow officer had called Josey, a 19-year veteran of the force, a "good cop."

"If I was in a jam, I'd want him backing me up," Lt. Ray Evers told ABCNews.com. "He's a good cop, but the video speaks for itself and the investigation will reveal whatever it reveals."

Josey, 39, has had 13 complaints made against him over his career, but Evers said that it is hard to qualify whether that is a lot, a little or average. He said it is not entirely unusual for officers who have frequent contact with people in rougher neighborhoods to have complaints made against them.

He said the 13 complaints against Josey range from verbal abuse to physical abuse.

"It's hard to decide if that's a lot or a little," Evers said. "Most were unfounded or not sustained."

The YouTube video, titled "Philadelphia Police Brutality," was posted on Sept. 30 and has been viewed over one million times.

Joseph Devenney/Getty Images(CHICAGO) -- An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed a man late Saturday night after a deadly confrontation ensued when the cop struck the man’s daughter with his motorcycle.

The officer was heading home Saturday through the town of Maywood when his bike hit 4-year old Taniyah Middleton. When the girl’s father Christopher, 26, confronted the officer over the incident, the officer shot and killed him.

Friends of the late father remembered him Sunday as a “helpful” and “happy” man.

“Chris was a great father,” Middleton’s cousin Mathis Hoskin told ABC’s Chicago affiliate WLS. “He was always helpful, never mad -- always happy with a smile on his face.”

But the events that transpired Saturday night are unclear. Pat Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, paints a very different picture of the incident than Middleton’s friends.

The 43-year old officer, an eight-year veteran of the force, was driving back from work when the girl suddenly sprinted into the street, Camden said.

“He was on his way home and a 4-year-old ran out into traffic,” said Camden. “He had a choice of hitting her head-on or dumping his bike and taking the personal injury to avoid hitting the 4-year old -- which he did. But as he dumped the bike, it slid across the road. She wound up getting nicked by the bike. He wound up with a broken ankle, a dislocated shoulder.”

“After the accident he gets up and the girl’s father became irate with him and comes over to him,” Camden continued. “The officer tells him, ‘I’m the police. Take it easy.’ The guy says, ‘I don’t give a [bleep] who you are’ and hits him in the face. Another man hits him from behind. The officer goes to the ground. They’re beating him and he’s about to lose consciousness. He pulls his weapon to defend himself at that point, fires one shot, and kills one of the individuals who happens to be the father of the 4-year-old.”

“Had the father simply stood there instead of attacking a police officer he might be alive today,” Camden stated.

Middleton’s relatives said it was understandable that the girl’s father was distressed by the incident.

“Of course a father would be upset at the initial reaction of seeing the child in this condition and he confronted the guy and they got into a confrontation,” Middleton’s uncle Darrell Davis told WLS.

But they claim the officer never identified himself as a cop before firing at Middleton.

“He never let anyone know he was a police officer until after he shot him,” witness Cordell Haggard said to WLS.

Both the girl and the officer were transported to Loyola University Medical Center. The girl, Camden said, had “bruises and abrasions.” The second man who confronted Middleton, according to Camden, was taken into custody by Maywood Police.

Chicago Police said the incident is under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority. Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, told ABC News they are now “canvassing the area and getting interviews.”

“We were notified of a shooting involving an off-duty police officer in Maywood at approximately 10:30 p.m.,” Merritt said. “We are now investigating it.”

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(BEVERLY, Mass.) -- Investigators are searching for a motive behind the alleged shooting of a Massachusetts officer who shot a fellow colleague, before turning the gun on himself, according to police.

The two men knew each other and had arranged to meet at a Starbucks coffee shop at a strip mall, according to investigators, who did not confirm if a motive for the shooting has been established.

Beverly police officer Jason Lantych, 35, stumbled into the Starbucks around 6 p.m. He had been shot in his groin and wrist and was bleeding profusely. Patrons immediately came to his aid.

Witnesses told police they heard multiple gunshots right before Lantych entered the coffee shop. Lantych identified the gunman as Sgt. Kenneth Nagy, 43, who allegedly fled the scene in a black SUV. Nagy was an off-duty sergeant from a nearby town, Hamilton.

“He was shot in the groin area,” one man told ABC News affiliate WCVB. “We elevated his leg and applied pressure and I told my buddy to apply pressure, we got the bleeding to slow down a little bit.”

Lantych was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery Friday night. Police told WCVB he was listed in critical condition.

Friday night, investigators identified Nagy as the prime suspect in the shooting. A warrant for his arrest was issued and a statewide manhunt was launched.

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett warned the public during a press conference Friday night that Nagy was armed and dangerous.

Just 15 minutes after the plea from the district attorney, the search was over.

Nagy fatally shot himself in his SUV parked in a parking lot on the opposite side of the building from where the mayhem began.

The Massachusetts State Police told ABC News that they will not make any further comments on the case and that it’s being handled by the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.

Comstock/Thinkstock(PHOENIX) -- Phoenix Police are investigating the arrest of a 15-year-old girl who was seen on tape being slammed to the ground by the arresting officer.

Officer Patrick Larrison has been placed on administrative leave while police carry out both an internal and criminal investigation into the arrest.

A YouTube video captured the Jan. 25 arrest on camera, but police didn't become aware of the video until this Tuesday. Someone in the police department saw the video and reported it.

"That type of video is very concerning to us," said Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump at a press conference Thursday. "What you see in the video is of great concern to the Phoenix Police Department about how a member of this community was treated."

The 15-year-old and her family have not been identified. The three-minute-long video starts with the girl having a fight in public with a woman who police identified as her mother. The mother has her daughter pinned to the ground in the parking lot of Charter East, part of the Ombudsman Charter Schools in Phoenix. The girl was reportedly intoxicated and sharing alcohol at the school, ABC Affiliate KNXV reported.

The charter school works with at-risk students.

The girl, wearing denim shorts and a T-shirt, fights her mother's hold, eventually getting up. The mother keeps trying to grab the girl, nearly pulling her shirt off.

When the police arrive, the girl is walking away from her mother. Officer Larrison can be seen on camera trying to catch up with the girl. He picks up speed. As she turns around to see him, he body-slams her, sending her to the ground.

"A charge here in what we're looking at, is there evidence of an aggravated assault or not," said Crump. "We have notified the County Attorney's Office of the video."

Officer Larrison is a six-and-a-half-year veteran of the Phoenix police force.

The girl was charged with aggravated assault for striking a school employee along with making threats to officers, police said.

Photo Courtesy - WABC-TV New York(LAKEWOOD, N.J.) -- A search is under way for the man suspected of pumping three bullets into a Lakewood, New Jersey, police officer Friday in what one official called an “execution-style killing.”

Patrolman Christopher Matlosz, 27, rolled up alongside the suspect, 19-year-old Jahmell Crockam. The two spoke for a short time. Moments later, investigators say Crockam pulled out a handgun and shot the officer three times. The suspect ran, triggering a massive police manhunt.

Authorities do not believe the conversation between the two was hostile or confrontational.

Crockam is described as a black male, 5’9, 220 lbs. He is already wanted on a previous weapons possession charge.

Matlosz was just reassigned from the midnight shift to the evening shift three weeks ago. He was engaged to be married.

Photo Courtesy - WABC- TV(NEW YORK) -- Navy Officer Andrew Lauda, on leave from patroling for pirates off the Somali coast, sent out an SOS Monday when he and his young family became trapped on a blizzard-bound New York highway for more than eight hours.

Lauda had been home from his deployment with the Navy in Africa for just four days when he got stuck with his wife Kristen and their three-month-old son on their way to grandma's house.

"We left our house in Norfolk, Va., at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. We got stuck on the Long Island Expressway at about 1 a.m.," said Lauda. "So that's about 18 hours." "We just got stuck in the snow, we couldn't move," said Lauda, 21.

The Navy officer, who first met his son when he returned home on Dec. 3, rationed the family's meager food until they were down to crackers. He then called ABC News' affiliate WABC to tell the station they were trapped and needed help.

WABC aired Lauda's interview and it was heard by Carlos Calderon in nearby Queens, N.Y.

"I was watching the news and heard [Lauda's] story about being stranded and I told my wife, 'You know what, I'm going to try to help them," said Calderon, a Manhattan building manager.

Calderon said it was Lauda's mention of his young son that really motivated him to go help.

"That baby, it got me," he said.

By the time Calderon reached Lauda and his family, they had sought shelter in a nearby bus that was also stuck and still had enough gas to run the heat.

Lauda said he used his Navy training to help his family make it through the experience, which he admitted was "tough," especially with an infant.